EDUCATION 545 



J. LEWIS SCOTT. A Federal survey should be made of uni- 

 versities and colleges offering engineering degrees, to discover how 

 much time is now being allotted to studies of ecology. Efforts should 

 be made to assist universities and colleges in developing courses in 

 ecological studies leading to a degree. 



PAUL B. SEARS. Reflecting on the excellent program of the con- 

 ference, I hope that strong emphasis will be given to the remarks of 

 Secretary Celebrezze on the necessity of interest and initiative at 

 the local level. 



As a corollary to this and since we must look largely to college- 

 trained people for leadership, I hope that attention will be called 

 to the strategic importance of required courses in biological science 

 at the college level. As matters stand at present, many, perhaps 

 the majority, of students who complete this requirement emerge 

 without any appreciation of the dynamics of the total landscape. 

 This is due to a primary emphasis on the analytical aspects of 

 biology, notably the molecular and cellular phenomena which are 

 making such striking advances at the present time. As a result, 

 attention to the total ecosystem and living communities in their re- 

 lation to man receives only slight emphasis, if any. 



If the educated man or woman is to understand how intimately 

 man is related to and dependent upon ecological phenomena, it is 

 important that this condition of which I speak should be remedied. 

 I realize that this is a large undertaking because teaching in this as 

 in other fields is so largely controlled by convention. 



Dr. J. HAROLD SEVERAID. I cannot emphasize too strongly the 

 importance of Mr. Scheffey's admonition that college and univer- 

 sity department heads will need the help of government to instill 

 in them the need for a new philosophy if these institutions are to 

 train the beauty specialists of the immediate future. The environ- 

 mental ecologists are normally not in control of the current, so-called 

 modern, science curricula. 



I feel safe in saying that many of the educational mandates called 

 for by the panel on education will fail miserably if it is not recognized 

 that a crash program of education will not accomplish the purpose 

 intended until and unless teachers are properly taught first. Too 

 many of our elementary teachers today cannot distinguish between 

 natural history per se and conservation. Thus, they teach or prac- 

 tice the former out of context with and totally independent of the 



